Theo Popov is a composer for stage and film.
Upcoming Performances:
March 23, 2024: San Francisco Conservatory of Music Recital
July 2024: Sofia Symphonic Summit
In Development:
The Halloween Tree; Composer, Tony Asaro. Commissioned by American Lyric Theater
Selected Works:
Nero Artifex, Princeton University
Once Upon the Wind, with Kate Light
Town Hall, Maryland Opera Studio with E.M Lewis
Film:
Possible Selves
Lloyd Kennedy, Sasquatch Photographer
THEO POPOV is an LA-based composer of music for the theater stage and film screen whose five operas have received multiple productions and awards across the United States. In addition, he has written musicals, choral and orchestral pieces, art songs, chamber and electronic music. Popov is thrilled to be currently utilizing his experience in dramatic composition to help tell the real stories of foster kids in the documentary film Possible Selves.
After a childhood spent singing Bulgarian folklore and Christian Orthodox songs, Popov began his formal compositional training by studying electronic music with Paul Lansky and musical geometry with Dmitri Tymoczko. Having explored various forms of sacred and folk traditions, he cultivated a special interest in Classical Antiquity, and has for the last decade worked on researching and incorporating it into his own oeuvre. His first opera, NERO ARTIFEX, received a full stage production at Princeton University to enthusiastic acclaim in March 2011. A three-act drama in Classical Latin with libretto by Mariah Min and Veronica Shi, the opera presented one of history’s most notorious emperors as a well meaning but incapable ruler, a gullible dreamer and unfortunate artist.
Since then, Popov has focused primarily on writing for the stage. In May 2012, his second opera Once Upon the Wind, with libretto by Kate Light, premiered within the framework of the Composer Librettist Development Program at the American Lyric Theater. The opera received a second production by The Secret Opera in 2014 after being selected as a winner in the company’s inaugural Composers Competition, and a third by Yale Opera Theater in 2021. In 2018, Popov won the Second Annual UMD Opera Composition Competition for his opera Town Hall, libretto by E. M. Lewis, which tackles challenging questions of American politics. The opera received its orchestral premiere in March 2019 at Willamette University in Oregon. Popov is also returning to the American Lyric Theater to develop the opera The Halloween Tree, based on a Ray Bradbury novella, with librettist Tony Asaro.
Popov completed his composition degree at Princeton University, where he studied with Steve Mackey, Barbara White and Paul Lansky. When he’s not composing, he can be found talking about wine and music pairings or playing the theremin.
Connect with Theo: Facebook